Accessing Capital Funds Now Based On Performance, FG Says

Quarterly releases of funds for capital projects will no longer be automatic but subject to meeting of key performance indicators by Ministries, Parastatals and Agencies (MDA), Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has said. 

The minister disclosed this yesterday in an opening address at the 2016 Annual Public Lecture of the Nigerian Economic Society (NES) held in Abuja. 

The government is set to make some capital releases for the coming quarter as the second quarter of the year draws to a close. N1.79 trillion or 29 per cent of the N6.06tr 2016 budget has been earmarked for capital expenses. 

Udoma said a robust monitoring and evaluation framework has been put in place under the coordination of his ministry to allow for effective implementation of the budget. 

A Professor of Economics at the University of Benin Prof. Mike I. Obadan who delivered the lecture titled, “Strengthening the Budget-Plan Link for Inclusive Development in Nigeria,” said planning in Nigeria had been poorly handled such that abandoned projects dot the country’s landscape. 

Obadan noted that the link between plans and budget had, for a long time, been weak in Nigeria due to plan indiscipline and deficient institutional arrangement for planning and budgeting.

DailyTrust